Analogikal

I have been in love with Manchester United forever. Well, not really forever. More like, the last 20 years. Well, that does not have the same ring. I wanted to profess my love very much like all the other mindless acts of romance I usually spew out. But then again, this one is not about the love and romance. This one is on the lack of blind faith. I have been away writing for a while now. A whole bunch of things played part in this lack of simplistic drivel being guided your way. A broken laptop is just one of those things. Plus I picked up on my artistic sides and have been belting out zentangle art on Instagram and Facebook and basically making people like it for a continuous massage of my ego. Well my ego is well massaged and at a good resting heart rate right now. I have been quite lazy as well. Why write a thousasnd words when you can draw a whole bunch of lines to express yourself. A lack of inspiration duly contributes to this laziness. Ever since I have returned from the great down under I am at a whole another level of No-fucks-given-ness. I had declared 2017 as the year of zen and peace and it has been the greatest self fulfilling prophecy bar none.

I digress as always. Manchester United. I will come back to Manchester United in a bit. But before that I wanna talk about what is going on on my freakin facebook feed. It seems like more of a roadside wall than a facebook feed; sans the paan and urine stains. My facebook wall makes Roadies interviews look like Kindergarten meet and greet. Suddenly everyone is a politically charged, passionate, patriot ready to dedicate their keyboard to the greater good of the nation. Well it is mildly better than the Baahubali posts. Again, like I said, a whole another level of no-fucks-given-ness.

Given below is gist of what usually follows:

Government makes a decision.

Sheep section A: Best decision ever. What genius! Amazing! Fantastic. Water melon of a decision! Best thing after sliced bread and Nutella. 

Sheep section B: Ridiculous. Atrocious. Anti-minority. Anti-muslim. Anti-semitic. Anti-democracy. Anti-progress. Anti-beef. Anti-Mayo. Anti-dote!!!

Sheep Section A: Anti-national! Soldier. National anthem. Sedition. Go back to Pakistan. 

The last bit is too true. I had been asked to go back to Pakistan. My friend intervened and pointed out that I am from Calicut. To which my online attacker said, ‘Exactly! go back to Pakistan’. After a session of geography lessons they understood that Calicut is a part of Kerala which in turn is a part of India, well, technically at least. It has been quite a hostile timeline.

Here is my issue with this whole cyclical motion of interactions. People have to get their minds out of the commode, unless their mind itself is the commode, in which case, I suggest drinking some Harpic. Read. Educate yourself. Do not be the sheep being guided to slaughter. Understand that every piece of junk you consume on Facebook/Twitter/Instagram/Whatsapp/Friend-in-the-apartment/Uncle-who-forwards-unsolicited-shit-on-whatsapp-groups is propaganda. Question it! Research about it. You know what is a great research tool? Click here !

Coming back to Manchester United. There is literally a billion Indians out there. Differentiating yourself in any way possible is really important. Being tall and scrawny doesn’t make you popular in a school full of boys with raging hormones and glorious facial hair. You do not want to be caught and lost in the crowd. I chose to follow Manchester United and calling myself a fan way before anyone could jump on the premier league bandwagon. This gave me immense pride. The fact that they were essentially winning everything there is to win made the choice really easy and one that turned out to be quite fulfilling. I would rally for the team and fight all sorts of verbal and at times physical battles to defend the team’s honour. Because, hello, what kind of supporter let’s his team out there to dry? I am no plastic fan!

Well, this was all good for a long long time. Over the years I started evolving a thought process which is based on something fairly complex and rare, a thing called logic. While Alex Fergusson was considered god and gospel I realised that the old man used to lose his marbles every now and then. Which, as humans, we are supposed to. If we do not make mistakes, we would be Rajnikanth. Well, even he made ‘Baba’. So Fergie was susceptible to the usual errors. Selling Beckham, Letting go of Keane, Letting go of Nistel Rooy , the selling of Ronaldo, most of all buying Eric Djemba Djemba, who was supposed to replace the menacing Keane. Well, other than the name, there was nothing menacing about li’l old Eric. This lack of blind faith was not exclusive to Fergie, I had the same approach towards god, politicians, teachers and most of all, my poor mom. I love her to bits, but if she didn’t make sense to me, I have been quite vocal about my dissent and dissatisfaction. I had to take part of the blame for having put these figures of authority in a position of power. The moment I took responsibility and acknowledged that I could be wrong, there was nothing stopping me from raising questions against any of them (Not that it mattered much to Fergie). It was a hard thing to do, but a necessary thing to do. This very lack of faith is exactly what forms the foundation of my inability to understand the herd behaviour I see on my wall. I cannot be led to believe something without concrete proof and data. So silly of me.

I understand you love and take pride in your country. Because, the absolute probability of fertilisation of that egg and the chanced birth within an imaginary geographical line is worth taking pride in. I understand your love for the ruling party. Because, as soon as they take oath, the politicians become a representation of all virtue and righteousness within the nation and they become magically responsible for the well-being of the nation. I also understand the hatred for the ruling party. Because, from birth we have been told that the man resides in any organisation of power and authority and being rebellious is cool. Well, here is the thing. There is a teeny tiny possibility that all of our approaches could be wrong. It is ok to question the decisions the country and the government makes. It should not make one an anti-national. It just should be the natural thing to do. Fergie made mistakes, Sachin (AKA God) also made mistakes, we all make mistakes. It is very much possible for our beloved politicians also to make mistakes, however unlikely and far fetched that may sound. Be it Demonetization or otherwise.

The failure of democracy is not when the proles are overlooked. The true failure of democracy is when we fail to hold our government accountable for the decisions they make and the fallouts of the same. The foundation of democracy is that the leaders are elected representatives. Our escalation to commitment should not lead us to rally behind our choices no matter however ridiculous it may be. It is ok for us to be wrong for having selected our leaders. Supporting their every move is not a solution. It is just the easiest escape route. Similarly, opposing the ruling party just because you have fundamental differences is not so cool either. Truly Fergie gave me the ability to stop being a fanboy and a sheep. I hope you discover your reasons too. Having said that, there is nothing wrong in being a sheep, if that is your fetish.